A Different Work Force
The 1970s expansion of the workforce in West Virginia’s coalfields meant that younger men -- many of whom were Vietnam veterans –- entered the mines. The political movements sweeping the nation at that time also influenced their thinking, and they began to question the cozy relationship that had developed between coal operators and the national UMWA leaders. At the level of the local and district organization, reformers from the “Miners for Democracy” began to win elections to union office. These reformers as well as leaders of the Black Lung Association played important roles in the Citizens Commission to Investigate the Buffalo Creek Disaster. In the fall of 1972 a reform slate led by BLA President Arnold Miller unseated the corrupt UMWA leadership.